GUILTY UK - Melanie Road, 17, stabbed to death, Bath, 9 June 1984 *sentencing in 2016*

[tes1984]

Shelley Morgan is definitely the most obvious link to Melanie Road. The police considered the potential link from the early days.

Whether Hampton killed Shelley or not is another matter. There's no shortage of suspects for Shelley, but little actual evidence.

Cannan was in prison in 1984, but he has been looked at in regards to Shelley.

The location where Shelley was murdered hasn't been confirmed. I don't think Cannan had a property in Bristol in 1984. He lived in Leigh Woods a few years later and killed Shirley Banks there.

 

[dotr]

Feb 25, 2026

Eve Myles inspired by real detective in crime drama Gone

The crime drama is partly based on a cold case investigation into the murder of a 17-year-old girl.

www.bbc.com

''Welsh actress Eve Myles is set to star in a crime drama inspired by the true story of a detective who solved the cold case murder of a 17-year-old girl in the 1980s.
Gone, which also stars Sherwood's David Morrissey, is a six-part fictional series following Det Annie Cassidy, played by Myles, as she attempts to solve the mysterious case of a missing woman.
It was partly inspired by To Hunt a Killer, a book written by crime correspondent Robert Murphy about Det Supt Julie Mackay's 2009 cold case investigation, 32 years after the murder of Melanie Road as she walked home from a nightclub in Bath in 1984.
Mackay's investigation led to Christopher Hampton being jailed for life for the teenager's murder.''

 

[dotr]

March 15, 2026

Verifying Device

“They’d just done a huge appeal on Crimewatch. I just had a gut instinct that I was going to find the killer.

“It took another six years, and a lot of sweat and tears, before we eventually found him through familial DNA, which was just another way of approaching it because we didn’t know who he was.”

Julie wrote about the case in To Hunt A Killer, which the ITV series is loosely based on.

The six-parter is leaving viewers on the edge of their seats as they watch determined Det Sgt Annie follow her instincts to catch the killer.''